News Digest^’
A ^ w V W ^ ■"‘O ^ ^ * Edited by Jennifer (XCilka
Demands met
Officials: Iraq will honor
all U.N. gulf resolutions
UNITED NATIONS — Iraq late
Wednesday promised die United
Nations it will honor all the Security
Council resolutions on the gulf war,
as demanded by the United Slates and
its allies, diplomats said.
They said the latest letter addressed
to the Security Council and Secre
tary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar
made clear that Baghdad will honor
all the resolutions.
Yemen’s Ambassador Abdalla
Saleh Ashtal, who saw the original
letter in Arabic, said, “It had in it the
acceptance of Iraq of resolutions of
the Security Council pertaining to the
gulf crisis.
“It is what the Security Council
wants, of course, on the condition
that there be a cease-fire. But now it’s
been overtaken by events,” al-Ashtal
said.
Cuban Ambassador Ricardo Alar
con also confirmed the account.
CNN said the letter was signed by
Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz and
quoted it as saying: “The government
of Iraq agrees to fully comply with
U.N. resolution 660 and to all the
other Security Council resolutions.”
There was no official confirma
tion from Baghdad that Iraq had ac
cepted the resolutions.
Al-Ashtal said the Security Coun
cil would meet this morning to dis
cuss the gulf war.
The council earlier had rejected a
conditional peace offer from Iraq and
told Baghdad it must agree to all 12
U.N. resolutions prior to any cease
fire.
Iraq’s ambassador had said his
government accepted council resolu
tions guaranteeing Kuwait’s sover
eignly and would accept liability for
war damages — but only if a cease
fire were declared and an economic
embargo lifted.
President Bush said the allies would
cease fire if Iraq agreed to their
demands, including compliance with
the 12 resolutions.
As news of Iraq’s decision to comply
with the U.N. resolution’s broke, the
hour for a cease-fire, 8 a.m. in Dhah
ran, Saudi Arabia, arrived.
U.S. military sources said an hour
before the deadline that all allied
offensive land, sea and air actions —
including the relentless bombing of
Baghdad — would stop at the cease
fire deadline.
Gulf War Roundup Wednesday, Feb. 27
In Kuwait City: The Kuwaiti flag flew over the
capital for the first time in six months Wednesday as
machine-gun-toting civilians took control ot the city.
Joyous Kuwaitis cheered Thank you, America.’
mt
j On the Battlefield:
( 0 Hundreds of tanks of the U.S. 1 st and 3rd Armored Divisions ^
i and 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment dashed with a Republican :y
Guard division in a key showdown m the U.S.-British push to drive
the Iraqi army’s beleaguered remnants Into the Basra corner.
: 0 Troops of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division stood less than 106
miles from Baghdad, In the deepest penetration yet of Iraq. The
top U.S. commander disavowed arty intention of marching on the
Iraqi capital, however.
0 The continuing battle in Iraq’s Southern Desert was the biggest
armored engagement since World War II.
0 At a briefing, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf gave an overview of
the Gulf War so far. and updated the American casualty count: 79
killed, including 2$ m the ground campaign, and 213 wounded.
As of 7 p.m. EST AP
Kuwaitiflag flies
over capital city
KUWAIT CITY - The Kuwaiti
flag flew over the capital for the first
time in six months Wednesday, as
machine-gun-toting civilians took
control of the city and allied forces
encircled it.
Thousands of Kuwaitis emerged
from hiding to stage euphoric cele
brations in their war-ravaged capital.
The celebration of freedom from
Iraqi occupation began at first light
and by midday included children biking
in the streets, past schools that had
been converted to Iraqi barracks,
couples strolling the shoreline hold
ing hands and an endless stacatto of
machine-gun fire into the skies.
Fewer than 100 Iiaqis were said to
be hiding by day’send, potential snip
ers being searched out by the armed
civilians.
Just west of the city, Marines de
feated the Iraqis in a major battle at
Kuwait International Airport, ending
the last organized Iraqi resistance in
Kuwait, allied officials said.
The exiled emir, Sheik Jabcr al
Sabah, planned to return to the city by
week’s end, perhaps as early as Thurs
day, Kuwaiti resistance leaders said.
As Kuwaitis paraded throughout
Kuwait City and the towns to the
south, they ripped from wallspictures
of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
One elderly man spat at a Saddam
poster before pulling it from a wall
and setting it afire. A poster showing
Sheik Jaber walking alongside Crown
Prince Saad Abdullah was in its place.
Scores of buildings were scarred
by fire; many, including the capital’s
main electricity plant, still were burn
ing or smoldering.
A thick, at times choking, smoke
wafted in the air, the ugly byproduct
of dozens of oil fires set by retr eating
Iraqis. The fires still burned, some
sending bright orange flames more
than 100 feet in the air.
“Thank all the Americans for sav
ing our country,” said Sabckah Abul,
an Egyptian who lives in Kuwait and
weathered the more than six months
of occupation. “Kuwait is free again.”
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11 Pennsylvania reservists killed by Scud
GREENS BURG, Pa. - Eleven sol
diers from Pennsylvania Reserve units,
two of them the first U.S. women
reported killed in the Gulf war, were
among the victims of the Iraqi missile
attack on barracks in Saudi Arabia,
relatives and U.S. Army officials said
Wednesday.
Ten of the victims were members
of the 14th Quartermaster Detach
ment, a water purification unit based
in Greensburg, Maj. Gen. James Baylor
i
said. One belonged to the 326th
Quartermaster Detachment, based in
New Castle, he said.
The 14th had left the United States
just a week and a day before the Scud
missile hit Monday near Dhahran.
Saudi Arabia. All together, 28 Ameri
cans died and 100 were wounded, the
Army said. The toll was higher than
all the other Scud attacks on Israel,
Saudi Arabia and other sites com
bined, according to official casualty
figures.
All 11 bodies were flown Tuesday
to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware,
said Baylor, commander of the 99th
Army Reserve Command of Oakdale,
a Pittsburgh suburb.
Flags at the Grecnsburg center and
at a high school across the street were
flown at half-staff. Gov. Robert Casey
declared a statewide week of mourn -
ing to honor those killed and said all
state flags will fly at half-staff.
Reformers accuse Communists
of plotting coup in Lithuania
MOSCOW - An investigation by
pro-reform military officers on
Wednesday accused eight Commu
nist Party leaders of plotting a coup
attempt in Lithuania, and said Presi
dent Mikhail Gorbachev must have
known about the plan.
The officers concluded that Soviet
troops were responsible for the deaths
of 15 people during an attack last
month on the television station in
Lithuania’s capital of Vilnius. Their
report was published in the liberal
weekly Moscow News.
The report by the officers, who
call themselves Shchit, or Shield,
rejected the military’s claim that troops
were fired on by demonstrators.
It also rejected a claim by Soviet
Defense Minister Dmitri Yazov that
the troops were only ordered “to
maintain order,” rather than help the
shadowy National Salvation Commit
tee seize power during the pre-dawn
clash on Jan. 13.
“The participation of Soviet mili
tary in the government coup was
planned beforehand, coordinated and
approved in the center (Moscow),"
said the report. “The president cannot
have not known about the planned
action.”
The report offered no evidence for
its conclusion that Gorbachev knew
about the action in advance.
The tank attack on Lithuanian
civilians surrounding the television
facility was witnessed by dozens of
foreign correspondents and drew
outrage around the world.
Gorbachev has maintained he did
not know about the military action
until the next morning. He has been
criticized for creating a climate that
maae such a military response pos
sible.
Thccriticism likely will grow with
publication of the inquiry by five mid
rank officers of the pro-reform sol
diers’ organization, which is despised
by hard-liners in the high command.
The report named eight top Com
munist officials as the “nucleus” of
the National Salvation Committee.
Among those was Gen. Vladimir
Uskhopchik, the Vilnius garrison
commander who ied the tank attack
on the television lower.
According to witnesses, the na
tionalist committee’s claim to have
seized power in Lithuania was broad
cast from the advancing tanks.
The report also named Lithuanian
Communist Party chief Mikolas Bu
rokyavicius; ideology chief Juozas
Jcrmalavicius; Maj. Gen. Algiman
r---—
das Naudzhunas, a party secretary;
Col. Valery Shurupov, a party con
sultant; Vilnius party leader Valentin
Lazulka; second secretary Valentin
Khadunkin; and the party secretary of
a military radio factory, who was
identified only as Dostal.
Jermalavicius acted as the spokes
man for the group during the attack,
but said he was not a member. On
Wednesday, Jermalavicius again
denied that he or any of the others
named in the report were members of
the committee.
The committee was composed of
“people who had never been involved
in politics until swept by the recent
wave,” Jermalavicius said in an inter
view. “They are naive people who
felt they had to do something to save
their country.”
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